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Occupy Archive Digital Exhibits: Spring 2020 CWRU Grievances of the 99% At its roots, the Occupy Wall Street Movement was an anti-capitalist, anti-corporation movement composed of people angered by the selfish and greedy financial practices of the country’s upper class. Proponents of Occupy thought the American Dream was no longer possible and protested the stifling lack of opportunity available to non-privileged citizens. As a result of the Great Recession beginning in 2008, the 99%, the people paying the price for the actions of the country's elites, advocated for regulation and oversight of this corrupt 1%. The Occupy Movement rooted their activism in an understanding that an economic system exclusively benefiting the top 1% at the expense of everyone else is unsustainable and antithetical to the idea of democracy.

Summer Disobedience School by Claire McDermott Keanna

The Summer Disobedience School was a series of teach-ins and group discussions occurring in the summer of 2012 within the context of the greater Occupy movement. As can be seen in the group’s definition of ‘civil disobedience’, the objective of the meetings was to create a space for gathering as well as an environment conducive to individuals with varied interests within the greater Occupy movement coming together and sharing tactics.

The set-up of the meetings is conducive to a wide variety of people being able to attend, creating a diverse group with which to create action. As is described in Dr. Hurwitz’s work “Gender and Race in the Occupy Movement: Relational Leadership and Discriminatory Resistance”(2019), the occupy movement lended itself to a type of discriminatory activism through hostility created by movement directors. However, by the Summer Disobedience School occurring in a spatially-diverse series of parks on weekends (accommodating to those that hold weekday jobs) free of charge, individuals from all walks of life were able to participate, lending a wider variety of perspectives and tactics to action.

Furthermore, the individuals behind Summer Disobedience School created a Facebook page for the initiative (which is still active and can be found here). The page contains details on events, photos from gatherings, and posted articles from the organizers as recently as 2016. This type of digital centralization allowed individuals unable to make the meetings the ability to see what was going on as well as be connected to articles and issues after the meeting series had ended. Considering the newness of Facebook at the time of the beginnings of the Occupy movement in 2012, the group creating a page was a smart utilization of a relatively novel way of organizing and shows their willingness to expand their activism beyond traditional gatherings.

-Claire Keanna, CWRU Class of 2022

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